Of the 73 percent of online adults in the U.S. that use at least one social network, 71 percent are using Facebook, a slight increase from the 67 percent who used the site as of the end of 2012, according to new stats from the Pew Research Center.

LinkedIn took the No. 2 spot with 22 percent of all American online adults belonging to the professional network — a two percent increase over last year. Pinterest, up six percent over last year, placed third with 21 percent followed by Twitter at 18 percent and Instagram at 17 percent.

With 63 percent of its members visiting the site at least once a day and 40 percent doing so several times each day, Facebook also wins out in the frequency of use category.

Instagram and Twitter users also tend to visit the sites often. Fifty-seven percent of Instagram users visit the site daily with 35 percent doing so multiple times, while 46 percent of Twitter users are daily visitors with 29 percent visiting several times each day.

“Overall, 42 percent of online adults use two or more of these social networks, while 36 percent use only one (the remaining 22 percent did not use any of the five specific sites we asked about),” the report reads.

“Among those who only use one major social networking platform, 84 percent say that Facebook is the single site that they frequent. However, other ‘single platform’ social networking site users have adopted a site other than Facebook as their platform of choice. Among those who use just one social networking site, eight percent use LinkedIn, four percent use Pinterest, and two percent each say that Instagram or Twitter is their sole social networking site.”

Facebook is the only social media site used by a wide variety of users — the others have more unique followings. Women, for example, are four times more likely to use Pinterest than men, while LinkedIn is most popular with college graduates and those in higher income brackets.

Twitter and Instagram are used primarily by younger adults, urban dwellers and non-whites — and there is a considerable overlap between the user bases of both sites.

4 Responses to “Facebook Still the King of Social Networking”

Hi Jennifer, thanks for the stats. I’m surprised to see that Twitter rated below LinkedIn and Pinterest. I haven’t followed such stats and just assumed that Twitter had a strong position in the US. I’d be interested to see what the local stats are for New Zealand and if our trends are following the US or are more unique.